Many marketers had predicted that 2007 was going to be the year that this advertising option would break through to the mainstream, but Mobile Advertising has still not begun to realize its huge potential. Slow growth of high speed networks and lack of an overall mobile internet audience have slowed the mass adoption by advertisers.

The recent introduction of flat-rate mobile plans and lower cost smart phones should help to expand the mobile phone user audience and increase mobile ad spending levels. According to eMarketer, worldwide mobile ad spending will grow from 2.7 billion in 2007 to over 19 billion in 2012. Text message (SMS) campaigns will likely account for the majority of the spend, with advertisers using the “walk before you run” approach before testing more complex campaigns with Mobile Search and Display formats.

Consumer costs continue to drop and mobile technology is improving, but there are still obstacles to overcome with mobile carrier constraints, user privacy, multiple ad formats, campaign tracking, and the unawareness of what the space can provide to an advertiser. 2008 probably wont be the year that Mobile Ads hit the mainstream, but its a good bet that Mobile Advertising will eventually rival Search Advertising.

Some of you reading this may actually believe that headline. I come across too many small businesses that believe that pay-per-click (ppc) is not right for their business.

In 2008, all businesses should be taking advantage of ppc advertising and if you are having trouble convincing yourself or your team to try it, here are some ways to counter popular excuses.

We are a B2B company and most searchers are consumers

While many searches are conducted by consumers, B2B customers also use search engines to find vendors and services. More importantly, ppc advertising allows you to only target words used by your potential customers, limiting who will see your ad. Additionally, you only pay when someone clicks on the ad, meaning that they should be a qualified lead if you have good ad copy.

We don’t have the budget

PPC advertising does not require a large budget. You can start on your own for as low as $20 and grow from there. Your company must be able to spare a little money to test this medium and then calculate the return on investment. If the medium provides a good return, marketing dollars will be shifted there.

We don’t have an online store

PPC advertising isn’t only for companies with online stores. Many service companies use ppc to generate leads and you can do the same whether you sell physical products or a service.

We don’t know anything about PPC advertising and don’t have time to learn

That is why companies like MoreVisibility exist. Outsourcing makes companies more efficient and allows them to focus on their core competencies. It usually works out cheaper to outsource than to hire an in-house specialist.

We are targeting a very niche market

That is the perfect opportunity to use ppc to reach customers. No other advertising medium offers the kind of targeting and reporting that ppc does. With contextual and site targeting, you can also advertise exactly where your niche market is online.

We prefer display advertising to text advertising

While text ads are the most popular, ppc advertising is not limited to text. Google also offers display advertising (as well as audio and video). You will be able to place your display ads on websites of your choice.

I hope that the responses above help to convince you and your team that ppc advertising is a good fit for most companies.

I studied marketing in business school and one of the most important things that has always stuck with me was the 5 P’s of Marketing – People, Place, Product, Promotion and Price. I later realized that some people were taught less than 5 and I personally came to believe that there should be 6 – Profit should matter as well.

More companies are realizing that SEM is a valid and important strategy, but many of them are not approaching it in the same way that they approach traditional marketing. People working in the SEM/SEO industry blog about these kinds of clients all the time – those that think it is as simple as picking a few keywords, throwing up an ad on a search engine and bidding more than everyone else to get the top spot.

This is not the process for traditional marketing and should not be for SEM. I have outlined how a company should use the 5 Ps to plan a paid search campaign better.

People – Who are you targeting? Targeting businesses instead of consumers means that you should be taking advantage of specific engines. Google, Yahoo and MSN are not the only options for paid search campaigns.

Place – Where are your customers? Most paid search platforms allow you to target specific states, cities or even choose your own radius from a specific point on a map. Not every company needs to target the entire USA so use geo-targeting to your advantage.

Product – What are you selling? Too many paid search ads do not clearly focus on the product and instead try to focus on the company. More importantly, the landing page for the advertisement needs to quickly explain what the product/service is. It makes no sense to spend money to get a lead only to provide them with a terrible landing page containing little product information.

Promotion – Are you promoting properly? Return on investment is usually proportional to the amount of promotion (though after a certain point saturation adds little value). Search engines like Google offer the option to show ads as quickly as possible or show evenly over time. If you have a sale/incentive with a specific end date, are you taking advantage of this option?

Price – The price of a product/service always matters and should be communicated on the landing page as quickly as possible. Searchers treat a landing page like finding a product on the shelf and they expect to quickly find the price, not carry it to a cashier for a price check.

Profit – This is my addition and it is important because it helps to determine what you could be bidding for your ads. Higher margins provide more room to adjust bids, but higher bids do not automatically mean more sales, so be careful not to overbid. All advertisers should test lower bids and not always aim to be in the #1 position. The lower position could very well result in a better return on investment based on the cost per conversion.

I hope that I have helped you to see where the “marketing” comes into play in search engine marketing.